It’s now warm enough

It’s now warm enough to plant annuals and warm weather crops (like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc). You can direct seed beans, cucumbers and squash too. Even watermelon or other kinds of melons. From what I’ve read, watermelons are the easiest melons to grow; but they need a lot of room. Someday…

In my garden I seeded bush green beans, cucumbers, butternut, zucchini and dill (I use the dill to attract beneficial insects). The seedlings have emerged and actively growing now. My only concern is the cucumber beetle and the squash vine borer. Even though I rotate my crops and clean up at the end of each season, I can’t seem to escape these critters. Last year my cucumber yield was abysmal because of the beetle. My zucchini production was barely adequate because of the borer. So what to do? Well I want to stay organic so… I’ve considered a floating row cover, but have read that it has to be tight so the bugs can’t creep under it; and I may have to pollinate the squash myself. I can also try copper dust (with rotenone) or a pyrethrin/rotenone insecticide (both are organic, but care should be taken when spraying in the presence of bees, which we want to encourage). This year I’m going to try the insecticide route and we’ll see how that does (though it’s probably more ecologically friendly to use the row cover). Part of my reasoning is how much time I have to setup, pollinate and water under a row cover – it seems more labor intensive to me (with a row cover, the pollinating insects can’t get to the flowers, so you have to manually pollinate with a Q-tip or small paint brush). With the organic insecticide I can avoid that if I apply it regularly. But the jury is out whether it’ll actually work. I’ll have to report back on that (and what I actually end up doing!).

The carrots and lettuce I planted in April are growing like gangbusters. I had my first salad (using the lettuce) this week (when I harvested the heads, I made sure to seed a new crop!). I should be able to provide all the lettuce I need for the next couple of months. The garlic I tried last year seems to be growing nicely (I’ll harvest that sometime in mid-late July).

Finally I tried some potatoes: one in a grow bag and one in a regular 16″ pot using the same method (4 inches of soil mix, the seed potatoes eyes up, then 4 more inches of soil). They are starting to grow and we’ll see whether the pot or grow bag works better. Personally, the pot looks better on the patio!

Composting
In my last entry I talked about using my own compost as part of my fertilization program. I also combined it with pearlite, vermiculite, and coconut coir to make my own potting soil (peat moss, while readily available is less sustainable – see here). The plants in this mixture are doing great! But I’ve learned something: there’s no avoiding weed seeds. If I want to keep the microbial activity of the compost, I have to accept the weed seeds. So all of the mixtures and in my vegetable gardens I do have small weeds appearing. But I’m finding that a daily (or every other day) walk through the garden where I remove most of those that appear seem to keep them under control. Even if I simply run my fingers over the soil to disrupt the seeds, it seems to be enough to keep the weeds in check.

There are many ways to compost and many kinds of compost bins. Since I have some pretty big gardens, I chose a 3 bin composter; my husband modified a plan found on the internet (thank you!), and made a 3 bin version of it. The first bin is for the newest material, the second for material partially composted, and the third is for the “finished” compost (which usually still needs screening). This takes a couple of years – right now, the 2nd bin is from the season before last and the beginning of last season, the 1st bin is from last season and the beginning of this one. When I turn everything, the first bin will be from the rest of this season plus the vegetative scraps over the coming year. Get it? If you don’t please don’t hesitate to contact me or ask questions.

My compost pile isn’t in full sun, which may be why I have weed seeds. All of my vegetative kitchen waste goes into the compost pile and I take care not to put anything in with seeds (imagine if I did?). Every now and then I bring out the hose and apply water to the bins to help things along. And that’s pretty much it. This is my second year and I still have sifted compost left (a very large 1 &1/2 bag). I put some of it in a pail and find that little worms appear (though they weren’t there when I sifted!). To me that means the compost is alive with microbial activity which serves my gardens very well.

In the Flower Gardens
My gardens are fairly mature at this point and everything is filling in nicely. I water them for about an hour or so about once a week and will begin an organic foliar feed (Neptunes Harvest) this coming week and continue every 2-3 weeks until the end of July. I moved a couple of specimens, but mostly left things as they are. A couple of disappointments this year though. I have a Black Night Buddleia (butterfly bush), that I cut back in early spring as usual; it’s doesn’t seem to be growing all that much and I may have lost it. Oh well – if that is the case, I’m already planning on putting a clematis in it’s place. Also, the daffodils that were spectacular last year bloomed less or didn’t appear at all. I think it’s because they may be too deep with the addition of mulch (or I planted stuff over them in the late fall!). This fall I plan to add more and mark them so I don’t bury them again!

So, that’s about it for now. It’s very busy in my garden. I still have to put stakes in my veggie garden and the weekly round of Serenade (an organic fungicide I’m trying this year) and Neem are continuing. But everything looks great and I hope I get a good harvest this year. I hope your gardens (or the ones you dream about) are doing just as well. Please feel free to leave a comment on what’s happening in your garden, or email me with any questions or comments you have.

Happy Gardening!
Susan